Courtesy of Rose Bowl

By Zac Ellis

The Rose Bowl will sport a new look this season. The Tournament of Roses, the BCS, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten unveiled a revamped Rose Bowl logo and trophy on Wednesday to commemorate the 100th installment of the “Grandaddy of Them All,” which will take place on Jan. 1, 2014 in Pasadena.

“As the first postseason bowl to reach 100 games, we are excited to mark this momentous occasion with enhancements to some of our iconic marks,” Tournament of Roses executive director William B. Flinn said in a release. “We look forward to the events leading up to January 1 to celebrate our illustrious history and for the future of The Granddaddy of Them All.”

The Tournament of Roses said the new logo “incorporates important aspects of traditions associated with the game including a Pasadena architecture-inspired design concept, homage to the San Gabriel Mountains and complimentary primary colors that highlight the Tournament of Roses and title sponsor, VIZIO.” Meanwhile, the Rose Bowl trophy underwent its own set of modifications, including the addition of 24k yellow gold vermeil accents and a 3/4-size football made out of sterling silver.

The Tournament of Roses will also host the final BCS title game on Monday, Jan. 6, marking the second time it has hosted two BCS games in one week.

A felicitous March Madness to all! The NCAA round of 64 commences today, and we’ll gladly cede the floor to hoopyball for its duration. While there is much we do not understand about basketball, including but not limited to its history, rules, strategies, players and coaches, the tournament does come along at a dreadful lull in the calendar for our beautiful game, and it gives us something to watch on television that is not the Cakes And Skanks Channel.

We harbor a particular fondness for the first day of March Madness, for it was on this date five years ago that we first journeyed to Las Vegas to take in the massive multi-day basketball betting spectacle, and it was there on March 21, 2008, that we spied an Illinois fan wearing a commemorative Rose Bowl shirt in public:

At the time this photo was taken, less than three months’ time had elapsed since Illinois faced utter obliteration at the hands of USC, falling 49-17 to the Trojans in Pasadena. This anonymous gentlemen is the bravest football fan we have ever met, and without college basketball, we’d never have known he existed. For this we give thanks.

The story of one college football postseason game, as told through social media:

A full, sunny panoramic Rose Bowl. twitter.com/slmandel/statu…

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) January 1, 2013

Sounds like someone who hasn’t eaten carne asada on a golf course before CFB paradise. MT @38godfrey: […] to hell with the Rose Bowl.

— Dan Rubenstein (@DanRubenstein) January 1, 2013

There are people in the stands crying because of this wedding. Probably because they thought they were gonna see a Kermit balloon.

— Bill Hanstock (@sundownmotel) January 1, 2013

I miss the days when the Tournament of Roses was to the death.

— Chris Marcil (@ChrisMarcil) January 1, 2013

Brent just hit the “you’re looking live at the Rose Bowl.” I feel like we’ve been given clearance to land.

— edsbs (@edsbs) January 1, 2013

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You can’t see the Utah student section in this photo, but you KNOW they’re lurking somewhere just off camera, waiting to triple-rush the field and swipe this trophy. (AP)

The 2013 Rose Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an X’s and O’s breakdown, click through to Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? This is the Rose Bowl. This is like the one game all year that doesn’t need this question. You know what the Rose Bowl is. The fact that you all know what the Rose Bowl is is central to the mythology of the Rose Bowl. This is the Rose Bowl. It is played in the Rose Bowl. Why is it called the Rose Bowl? STOP THAT.

• When is it on television? Coverage begins at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN, featuring the vocal stylings of Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit, Heather Cox and Tom Rinaldi. The game will also air on ESPN Deportes and stream on WatchESPN.

• Whom does it feature? Any champions of the Pac-12 and Big Ten not playing in the BCS title game.

• What about this year? With the national championship game slots going to an SEC team and an independent, Big Ten champ Wisconsin and Pac-12 champ Stanford will travel to Pasadena.

• Does the bowl have a social media presence? It does, albeit a steadfastly dignified one:
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It’s unlikely that Jordan Lynch and NIU can slide into a BCS bowl, but when have we ever liked sure things? (AP)

Quick hits from Friday night’s college football conference championship games. For more on Week 14, check out our Championship Saturday Snaps, coverage of Louisville-Rutgers, Oklahoma-TCU and the epic clash between Alabama and Georgia, plus our complete Top 25 review.

• No. 19 Northern Illinois 44, No. 18 Kent State 37 (2OT). Jordan Lynch put on a show in Detroit, and NIU’s defense played the part of showstoppers in the 2012 MAC championship game. The Huskies won their second consecutive conference title, in their third consecutive conference title game appearance, but this is MACtion, dahling. And MACtion would never, ever wind up without a flourish.

Down 10-0 late in the first quarter and looking slightly discombobulated, the Huskies executed a bit of gridiron theater we might have expected out of the early-season Golden Flashes, back when they were returning fumbled punts the wrong way down the field and tackling their own teammates for safeties: They attempted a fake field goal attempt that was interrupted by their own timeout call, effectively icing their own kicker, who wasn’t even planning to kick. Problem? Not for a team with Lynch, who returned to the field after the break, converted fourth-and-three on his own two feet, then continued running for 14 additional yards. Viva MACtion!

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Dave Clawson is here to hand you this many more losses, Ohio. (AP)

• Bowling Green 26, Ohio 14. In the span of less than two weeks, the Bobcats have lost both their shot at a perfect regular season and an undefeated home season, but this year’s class of seniors will still depart as the winningest in school history. Tyler Tettleton was sacked four times by three different Falcons, but he did manage to become the school’s all-time leading passer, with his 145 aerial yards bumping his career total to 5,475. The Falcons scored 19 points in the second quarter and were led offensively by Anthon Samuel, who rushed for 181 yards and two scores. [BOX | RECAP]

• It’s that time of year. We don’t really get into recruiting as part of our bloggy antics here, but it’s always proper to mark that special day on the calendar when the commitment of the nation’s top recruit is called into question. Keep up with the movements of Robert Nkemdiche with this StoryStream from our friends at SB Nation.

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Emphasis ours, via Reuters: “ESPN paid $80 million for broadcast rights of the newly created Champions Bowl, matching the sports network’s investment in the Rose Bowl.”

This. Changes. Everything. (Unless. It. Doesn’t.) Right?

The Big Ten and Pac-12 sure do love the Rose Bowl. But will that love cause the rest of us to resent the Granddaddy? (US PRESSWIRE)

Hey, neato, BCS honchos are exploring new formats for college football’s bloated and occasionally nonsensical postseason! USA Today has a cache of documents with all the details, and included among them is one horrifying scenario that’s either an elaborate prank of admirable intricacy or a dire klaxon that signals the triumph at last of #feelingsball over reason.

[Proposed plans include] a heretofore undisclosed four-team playoff proposal that could expand the semifinals to preserve an annual Big Ten-vs.-Pacific-12 matchup in the Rose Bowl.

In the latter plan, the four highest-ranked teams at the end of the regular season would meet in semifinals unless the Big Ten or Pac-12 champion, or both, were among the top four. Those leagues’ teams still would meet in the Rose, and the next highest-ranked team or teams would slide into the semis. The national championship finalists would be selected after those three games.

For the record, here’s what that plan would have looked like if it had been in place the past five seasons. Are you not entertained?

And you know what else rankles? Apart from making a mockery of the definition of the Redbird Reading Group-level term “semifinal,” it turns swaths of sports fans, however tangentially, against the Rose Bowl, and the Rose Bowl is one of our very favorite things. (If you’ve never been, change that. Even if you get an Illinois-USC matchup and don’t like your baths bloody, there’s still the parade and the golf course tailgating and Pasadena to explore.) We lived 20 minutes from the stadium for a few years after college. It is our favorite place on earth. And if we  now lived someplace where the weather in January was at all similar to Chicago in January, we, too, would probably make complete prats of ourselves to score a guaranteed trip to Southern California on an annual basis. But surely Jim Delany makes more than enough fat bills from his cashy conference to score a sweet timeshare in the ‘Bu, somewhere. Must we really all suffer, must our precious game suffer, so that one man may savor his Pie ‘n Burger in prosaic silence?

A curated selection of sporting types responding to this development, after the jump:

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Yes, that's a reflective Oregon helmet. And yes, those roses bear the school logos. (US PRESSWIRE)

The 2012 Rose Bowl is just hours away. We’re sure you have so many questions. We’re here to help. (For an Xs and Os breakdown,  check out Stewart Mandel’s game preview.)

• What’s all this, then? The Big One! It’s not the title game this year, but the Granddaddy Of Them All is always a Big Damn Deal.

• Tell that to the 2007-2008 Fighting Illini. Point taken.

• Where will this game be played? SPOILER ALERT: Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, regular-season home of the UCLA Bruins, hosts the Rose Bowl football game.

• When is it on television? Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET on Monday, January 2. The game will be televised on ESPN.

• Whom does it feature? Conference champions from the Big Ten and Pac-12.

• What about this year? Big guns! Oregon and Wisconsin, both 11-2, had title game aspirations but are getting a pretty swell consolation prize.

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